Alright everyone. Get out your monogrammed stationery and Cross pen. This is a bread that you simply must write home about.

Up until this point, I’ve not been a real big fan of multigrain bread. Perhaps it’s because I’ve never had the pleasure of sampling a really well-made multigrain loaf. To me, multigrain bread has always conjured up images of heavy, dry and tasteless planks of corrugated cardboard. But with my New Year’s resolution of trying to eat foods that are better for me (no, I won’t totally be giving up the occasional croissant or slice of brioche but I am trying to eat less and include only natural, additive-free foods in my diet), I decided to revisit the world of whole grains.

My main objective was to produce a light crumbed, complex flavored loaf with whole grains. As a starting point, I decided to use the Five-Grain Levain described in Hamelman’s Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes as a template. This bread makes use of a soaker consisting of cracked rye, flaxseeds, sunflower seeds and oats, and, in addition to the use of whole wheat flour, calls for some high gluten flour to support the structure of such a grain- and seed-laden bread. I ended up using cracked hard red winter wheat instead of cracked rye in the soaker (who would have guessed that rye berries would be so hard to find in both the national chain and local health food stores?) and found that I had to increase the dough hydration substantially from that specified in the original formula to obtain a beautiful dough with just the right balance of elasticity and extensibility. For those mixing by hand, be forewarned that in the early stages of mixing, right after the addition of the soaker, the dough becomes quite sticky and slippery but then becomes much better behaved upon further mixing and full incorporation of the soaker.

Since the first of the year, I’ve been concentrating my efforts on extracting more of the subtle flavors available from a properly formulated and fermented dough and the incredibly rich, nutty and caramel-like flavor of this bread leads me to believe that I may be making some progress.

Levain

250 g King Arthur All-Purpose Flour

315 g Water

50 g 100% Hydration Sourdough Starter

Soaker

95 g Cracked Hard Red Winter Wheat

95 g Flaxseeds

75 g Sunflower Seeds

75 g Oat Groats

405 g Boiling Water

7 g Salt

Final Dough

500 g King Arthur Sir Lancelot (high gluten) Flour

250 g King Arthur Organic Whole Wheat Flour

360 g Water

15 g Salt

1 tsp Instant Dried Yeast

560 g Levain (a small amount of the prepared levain is discarded)

All of the Soaker

The evening before the bake, the levain is prepared by whisking the mature starter in the water until fully dispersed. The flour is then added and the mixture once again whisked until a smooth, pancake-like batter is obtained. The mixture is then covered and allowed to sit overnight at 72ºF for approximately 12 hours until mature. The soaker is also prepared the preceding evening by mixing together the cracked wheat, flaxseeds, sunflower seeds, oats and salt in a heatproof bowl and then pouring the boiling water onto the mixture. This mixture is also covered and allowed to sit overnight at room temperature.

The following morning, the final dough is prepared by adding 560 g of the prepared levain to the water in a stand mixer bowl and the bowl contents are mixed using the whisk attachment at speed 3 for 1 minute. A mixture of the high gluten flour, the whole wheat flour and the instant dried yeast is then added and the bowl contents are mixed using a spiral dough hook at speed 2, just until all the ingredients come together, approximately 2 minutes. The bowl and its contents are then allowed to rest at 72ºF for an autolyse period of 30 minutes. After this time, the salt is added and the dough is mixed at speed 3 for 5 minutes using the spiral dough hook. All of the soaker is then added and the sticky, slippery mixture is mixed at speed 2 until all the ingredients are incorporated. Occasionally, it was found necessary to stop the mixer, manually fold the dough a bit, and then restart the mixer to get all the soaker incorporated. After the incorporation, the dough is then mixed for an additional 5 minutes on speed 3 until the dough just begins to separate from the walls and bottom of the mixing bowl.

The dough is then placed in a lightly oiled container, covered and allowed to ferment for 2 hours, with a fold given halfway through the fermentation period. The dough is then divided into 3 pieces, pre-shaped into rounds and allowed to rest at room temperature for 15 minutes. The dough pieces are then shaped into batards, placed in brotformen coated with rice flour, covered and allowed a second fermentation of an additional 2 hours at 72ºF. The batards are then unloaded onto a peel, scored, loaded into a preheated 450ºF oven and baked for 40 minutes, the first 20 minutes being under steam. The loaves are allowed to fully cool to room temperature before slicing.

80 Responses to “Multigrain Bread”

Glad to see you back, Steve. Beautiful bread, as usual.
When I see references to cracked rye, I’m unsure of how coarse the berries are to be milled. Suggestions? Also, did you toast your sunflower seeds?

Lovely loaf, Steve!
Hamelman’s 5-grain Levain is a wonderful bread. As good as it is as you made it, I find it even better with an overnight retardation of the formed loaves.
I thought this was my favorite from “Bread,” until I baked the rye version, which I like even better. I’d love to hear which you prefer.

Steve, I got to say, that loaf is utterly remarkable. Seeing it from my trans-Atlantic location (and, thus being robbed the fortune of tasting and smelling it), this looks like the definitive multigrain. Perfection

It’s interesting that you had to increase the hydration when substituting cracked wheat for rye. I’ve never tried that substitution myself. I often make this bread with rye chops in a cold soaker, and in that case, the original overall hydration appears to be spot on.

Outstanding Steve!
Having the ability to read the hydration and adjust is what makes you such a superb baker. I agree with David, this has been one of my favorites from Bread. I’ve been wanting to use rye chops and meal but it’s so hard to find the specialty rye products here. Now that I have some I’ll have to try the Multi Grain again.
Fantastic write up Steve.
Eric

What an incredible multigrain loaf! I have never achieved so open and tender a crumb with whole grains. I use your steaming system, have a Super Peel and Hammelman’s Bread. Now to garner the grains and flours…thanks for the challenge!

If you’ll pardon the vernacular — you were kickin’ butt and takin’ names when you pulled that bread from the oven.

And I hope both you and Jeffrey will pardon me if I suggest to other readers that, if high gluten flour like “Sir Lancelot” is too difficult to source, you have at least one other option. Use KA’s very strong “Bread Flour” which can be purchased at many grocery stores, and just cut back by maybe 2 percentage points or more on the formula’s hydration percentage.

Such a flavorful bread! Your description of the bread and process is just right. The grains make it! I also have wanted to try the rye berries but haven’t been sure of how to get the ‘cracked” state. The wheat berries are what I’ve usually used but haven’t added the extra hydration as you described — I think I’ll try that. Also I have done the overnight retardation and that does give the total taste an added twang.

1 – LindyD – For cracking wheat berries, I used a mortar and pestle and gently pounded the berries just until they were cracked open. I did not try to grind the grain any further. As for the sunflower seeds, I didn’t toast them before use this time but on my next go-around with this bread, I will definitely do so to bring out even more of their nutty flavor.

2 – David – I, too, am a big fan of rye (hence my extreme disappointment at not being able to find rye berries) and plan to try the formula with rye berries and rye flour sometime in the near future.

3 – Hans Joachim – The really interesting part is that I had to add substantially more water to the dough even before the soaker was added! Perhaps it is just another case of different flours, or even different lots of the ‘same’ flour, absorbing water differently. On a separate note, I must say I envy the availability of the many different types of rye ingredients in Norway.

4 – Eric – I look forward to reading of your exploits with rye chops and meal in the baking of this bread on TFL.

7 – SallyBR – Handling the dough can get a bit tricky but you’ll get the hang of it in no time. By the way, great post on the overuse of antibiotics by the food industry here in the U.S. I encourage all those interested in the topic to read Sally’s post here.

8 – Manel – With comments such as yours, how could I stay away?

9 – Dan – Pardon the vernacular? I embrace it! Also, thanks for pointing out the option of using King Arthur bread flour in place of the Sir Lancelot high gluten flour for those who have difficulty obtaining the latter. It’s always good to be able to make a formula more accessible.

Hi Steve,
This looks fantastic, thanks for sharing! I’ll give it a try as soon as we’re done with our current malted grain loaf.
One question: do you know if there is any reason why the recipe has you prepare more levain than you’ll need, other than to create “round” measurements?
About 9% of the prepared levain is discarded, so I’m tempted to just scale down the quantities given, and prepare just the amount that ends up being used (228g flour, 287g water, 45g starter). What do you think?
Not a huge difference, perhaps, but I’m all for saving flour, 22 grams at a time.
Clotilde.

Hi Clotilde,
Your kind words are greatly appreciated!
I’m glad you asked your question because it gives me a chance to go into a bit more detail on how I manage my sourdough starter. I keep my starter at 72ºF and feed it twice a day. When it comes time to prepare a levain for baking bread, I always make a bit more levain than the recipe calls for so that I can use the remaining levain to continue to propagate my starter. So although I might have somewhat inaccurately called for ‘discarding’ the excess levain in the recipe above, in actuality I fed the excess with additional flour and water in order to propagate my starter. If you manage your starter differently, I see no reason why you can’t scale down the quantities to yield exactly 560 g of levain.

As an aside, for those of you who haven’t yet taken the opportunity to visit Clotilde’s blog, Chocolate and Zucchini, I highly recommend that you do so. It makes for wonderful reading, dealing with all aspects of both sweet and savory foods (with a huge compilation of some great recipes), all from a young French woman’s perspective.

Great comeback, after a looong absence…great bread! I’d love to try to make it but here in Ecuador there is no great range of flours….no rye (not included in the recipe, but I mention to give you an idea) no idea what cracked hard winter wheat is…can I make without it? we all Hope to see you a bit more often. Cheers from Quito.Paolo

Paolo, the great thing about this formula is its versatility. Feel free to add or subtract any whole grain you wish. However, as always, be mindful to adjust the amount of water added to the dough as this should vary depending upon the type and amount of whole grain you use.

Steve, such a beautiful loaf of bread! I have never tried the autolyse method of adding the salt after the dough has been mixed and seeing this creation makes me think I should. As I mix it all by hand I always find it easier to add the salt in with the flour so that I can make sure it goes in evenly.

Steve,
You are a bread genius.
This bread is ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!!! Complètement sublime I would say in french.
I changed a few things to bake it at home with what I had in my pantry (rye berries-I’ll send you some ASAP, you must bake bread with those!-; some rye flour + T110 and T80, no added gluten finally, and my timetable was a little bit different) but the bread I’ve baked is yours and it is SO GOOD!
THANK YOU. You’re helping me being a better home baker each time I follow your recipes.
Please, keep on posting!

Zeb, because one goal of an autolyse step is to fully hydrate the flour before the dough is given a final mix, salt is typically left out of the autolyse because of its tendency to reduce the osmotic pressure and thus inhibit the flour’s hydration.

Mimi, yours will be a bookmark definitely worth going back to!

Joanne, this is the first bread with a fairly high percentage of whole wheat that I actually enjoy eating! I hope to be able to post a great tasting, naturally leavened 100% whole wheat bread shortly.

Anne Marie, I hope you take a stab at baking this bread. I’m sure you’ll enjoy every bite!

Flo, what can I say? I can’t help but blush at your comments!
I’m very glad you’re enjoying the bread. I had a feeling that you would.
I am determined to find rye berries to use in my next baking of this bread. I have a couple more ideas on where I might be able to get them locally. If these fall through, then I’ll be sure to take you up on your most generous offer!

Jane, your young ones probably have fairly sophisticated palates and probably already enjoy whole grain breads, but if they don’t, they’re sure to enjoy this one (and you will, too)!

Beautiful, delicious-looking bread and I’m eager to give it a try. Is there a way to adapt this recipe for those of us who don’t have a sourdough starter (recognizing that some nuances of flavor will be lost if we rely on yeast alone)?

Jo, you should be able to substitute the same quantity of a mature 125% hydration poolish for the levain that was used. Please be aware, though, that the timing for various steps in the process may need to be modified. And you are quite right, the flavor of the final bread will be different.

I made it with rye berries (thanks to Flo Makanai who sweetly sent me some!), a ready-made mix of seeds (squash seeds, linseed, flax seeds, sesame, sunflower seeds), rolled oats (couldn’t find groats), and a mix of white and partially whole wheat as well as spelt flour.

I chose not to use dried yeast, but rather opted for an overnight bulk fermentation in the fridge, as I normally proceed: the dough was left for 2 hours at room temp after kneading, then covered and kept for ~18 hours in the fridge. Left to come back to room temp for about 1 hour the next day, then shaped, given a short rest while the oven and baking stone finished preheating, then baked.

I also two-thirded the recipe — I seldom make that much bread dough at a time, it scared me a bit — but still got three bâtards out of it, of a size that’s just right for my baking stone.

The dough was fairly wet — my go-to loaf has a 66% hydration and this was wetter — but still perfectly manageable, even pleasant to work with.

My crumb is not quite as dramatically open as in your picture, Steve (I suspect that’s because I skipped the yeast), but still nicely so, and the crust is extraordinary. With a bit of salted butter or almond butter, it’s breakfast bliss.

I brought one of the freshly baked loaves as a hostess gift last night, and my friends were duly impressed.

This is definitely going into the regular bread rotation — thanks for sharing, Steve!

Clotilde, it’s great to hear that you were pleased with how your loaves turned out. I especially enjoy hearing how people put their own ‘spin’ on the recipe to make it their own.

With the substantial amount of whole grain this bread needs to support, I suspect that the open crumb that I obtained was more a function of the higher gluten flour that I used rather than my inclusion of a relatively small amount of baker’s yeast. The reason for my conjecture is the similarly open crumb that I obtained with the baker’s yeast-free pain au levain shown here.

As you did, I try to bring a gift of bread whenever I’m invited over to a friend’s house. It always seems to be appreciated and with some friends, it’s become obligatory!

Steve,
I’ve been following your bread site for about 5 months now! You’ve made me a better bread maker with your insights, instructions, and videos! For 2 years I’ve been attempting to master home baked artisan bread and while I’m not there yet, my results have improved immensely! Thank-you! I’m working thru this multi-grain bread now, and expect to bake this afternoon. I’ll share results.

Well my attempt at this bread was somewhat of a success. I had to use KAF bread flour instead of the higher gluten and did not reduce the amount of water as a reader above suggested. And I mixed by hand which was difficult to say the least after the soaker was added. The dough was just too slack throughout the process. I’m guessing the higher gluten flour can absorb a bit more water than the KAF bread flour. I realized my error when the dough got to the peel and spread out a bit too much. It still had great flavor and a very nice crumb. Very soft texture. It just was not as tall as it could have been with a little stronger dough. I am a hero of all that tasted it, but now I can improve it next time by holding out some of the water. Thanks for the recipe and techniques. Keith

Keith, when one changes from a high gluten flour to a flour with a lower protein content, such as a bread flour, it usually requires the addition of a bit less water during mixing to obtain a dough of comparable consistency. As you’ve discovered, a baker should always begin mixing the dough by adding a little less water than is called for by the recipe and then evaluating the dough as it is being mixed, adding additional water, if necessary, to obtain the desired dough consistency.

Thanks for this great recipe! I’ve tried it several times now, experimenting with different mixes of grains. I’ve tossed in both wheat and rye berries without cracking them and I like the way it adds to the texture of the bread, but millet is also good and less obvious. I’ve used both oat groats and regular oats and both were very good. This is a bread I know I’ll make regularly. Thanks so much for your wonderful website.

Hi Ellen,
Welcome to Bread cetera. I’m glad you’re enjoying the website. As you’ve found, the beauty of this recipe is its versatility. Just about any combination of seeds, nuts and grain can be used as long as the dough hydration is adjusted accordingly.

Hi Janet,
Yes, I still have plans to post a formula for a 100% whole wheat naturally leavened bread. I’m hoping to use whole wheat flour obtained from freshly-milled wheat berries so I’m in the process of researching all the different home grain mills that are currently available.

Steve, I have the KA 6 qt. 575 watt mixer. The spiral dough hook specifies not to be used above speed 2. I noticed you specified a higher speed in this recipe…………any problems when you mixed at speed 3?
When I made this recipe, I believe I sheepishly stayed with the speed 2 but wound up mixing longer.
The bread came out great but not quite as open crumbed as yours. Could that be because I mixed at the lower speed?
Thanks for your reply.

Janet,
You are quite right that KitchenAid recommends that all bread doughs be mixed on speed 2. KitchenAid mixers are poorly designed for mixing bread dough and the potential does exist for damage to the mixer if mixing doughs at speeds higher than 3. Only KitchenAid mixer owners can decide for themselves if it is worth the risk.
That being said, as long as you are able to mix the dough to sufficient development on speed 2, I don’t believe that will have a material effect on the openness of the crumb.

Made that bread yesterday for the very first time. Did everything according to the recipe (so not typical for me), down to the exact amount of water. The exception was that I did not fold in between resting).

I have a Bosch with recirculation, and I bake on regular pizza stones from BB&B. The interesting thing is that the round stone which was on the very top (thinner stone) created a lighter bread than the thicker and heavier one which was placed in the middle of the oven, pretty much right in front of the circulating fan. I had to adjust temp down a bit in order to prevent it from burning too much. But it is by far not burned, just a bit very dark in spots.

After the bread was done singing after it came out of the oven (about 2 hours later) I had a slice, and didn’t stop until about a third of the bread was gone!!!

I then took one loaf to a party last night where half the guys were Germans. The bread didn’t last 5 minutes (OK, there were a lot of people), and the comment was made that it actually tasted equal or better than bread from a real German Bakery (and those guys were here for a few months only, so no loss of actual tasting ability just yet!!! ).

I guess that doesn’t require anything else to say other than … I know I will make that bread again!!!

Thomas,
I’m glad to hear that the bread was a big success for you.
You ate only a third of the bread by yourself? Whenever I bake bread, I usually bake two loaves and end up polishing off one whole loaf before I even realize it!

Hi Steve,
I am young baker on French riviera and I search new recipes. I settled a question. I would like to know if you incorporate l ‘eau of tempering of kernels in your paste? Because it seems to me a lot. They attain a rate moisturizing superior in 100 % ?? Sorry my English is very bad. Amicably Sébastien

All 405 g of the water added to the seeds and grain of the soaker are completely absorbed by the seeds and grain so, yes, all the water added to the soaker becomes part of the dough. Please be aware, though, that American flours tends to have a higher protein content than French flours, so American flours requires more water than French flours to produce a dough of a given consistency. You will probably need to decrease the amount of water in the recipe for the flour that you are using.

Sébastien, your English is quite good but if you’d rather write in French in the future, please feel free to do so. As long as you don’t mind my answering in English. I have a lot more trouble writing in French than I do reading it!

Hi Steve… what a beautiful bread! I am wondering if you could share your recipe of 100% Hydration Sourdough Starter. I baked some other breads before but I did not have to used starter. I would like to try to make one of this bread by the time I figure out the starter…thanks!

I am new to making sourdough breads (and fairly new to making bread in general), this is only my second attempt (first was your tahini bread).

Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out at all. It must have had way too much liquid and spread out all over the cooking tray and was thus only about 5 cm high. I think the taste is good though a bit too salty.

So, I’m sure its a difference in flours here in Finland vs. there in the US. I also haven’t yet figured out how to know for sure I’m using a comparable flour since I can’t read the labels in finnish just yet. I used a regular grind of wheat which looked and felt to me like an AP flour for the high gluten flour, and a flour made from wheat called “partially milled” which I took to be wholewheat flour. It looked and felt like the wholewheat flours in the US anyway. Everything else was completely by the recipe so I am guessing its some difference in the flour so next time I’ll reduce it quite a lot.

Thanks for all your tips and demonstrations you put on here. It helps me as a beginner to try to figure out how to do even what you might consider to be minor.

Hi Cari,
As you probably know, different flours can have dramatically different water absorption characteristics. Use the amount of water specified in a recipe only as a guide. It is more important to add just enough water to yield a dough with the desired softness/firmness than to add the exact quantity of water specified in the recipe. Let your senses be your guide.
Being new to bread baking, if you haven’t already done so, you might want to read one or more of the bread books recommended on this site. They will provide you with a firm foundation of bread baking knowledge that would otherwise be difficult or time-consuming to acquire by trial and error baking alone.

i have a suggestion with respect to the various flours that may be difficult to find, especially in this recipe. the Sir Lancelot is only mail order and is quite pricey for a 3 lb bag. one can mix in vital wheat gluten to increase the protein level of a given flour. King arthur publishes the percentages on their website. it takes a little math, but it is far cheaper and faster than buying mail order flour. i added 35g (of the total 500g) of 60% protein gluten to king arthur bread flour to roughly make sir lancelot’s 14.2% protein. the results have been consistently wonderful. be sure and check which gluten you buy as they range in purity, another brand i saw was 85% protein.

I’ll be trying this soon–still stuck on making a variation of your pain au levain every weekend in which I use whole wheat in place of rye flour (because I keep forgetting to pick up the rye) that my family loves. I’m at about 50/50 on the white flour/whole wheat flour and it turns out great.

A couple of suggestions because I’ve baked a lot of whole-grain breads over the years, for people who might have trouble finding some of the ingredients:
- In place of the cracked wheat berries try using bulgur wheat, which is, after all, cracked wheat. It’s had a bit more processing than whole grains simply being smashed, but should have much of the toothiness.
- In place of whole oat grouts use Scottish or Irish oats, which are a coarser grind of the whole groat than standard processed oat flakes.
- As a vegetarian I wonder about the value of using ground flaxseed in place of the whole seeds. As I understand it, more of the omega nutrients are available when the seed is ground; flax is one of the ways I get this. It would also be less “intrusive” in the dough when ground, for those who don’t like little bits of things (I do). I’m assuming grinding also makes more of the high oil content of the seed available to the dough so it may change the consistency, though, and would have to be adjusted for.
- And, while it wouldn’t be quite the same mix (which sounds wonderful), if you had a bit of leftover cooked hot cereal of any kind I’d guess you could substitute that for part or all of the soaker and get decent results, although not the same as this, obviously. Any time I make a loaf of bread with leftover oatmeal in it, it has a wonderful silkiness. I’m big on recycling and bread-baking is one way I accomplish this, which means no two loaves are the same.

Thank you again for such an incredibly rich bread-baking resource and your wonderfully engaged readers.

Hello Steve, congratulations for such a beautiful bread, my feelings to wholegrain breads are just what you describe but this one is wonderful.
I have a question though, why do you still need to use yeast if you are using sourdough already?
After several tryings, I finally have got not one but sourdoughs starters, one from spelta (after three days) and the other from white flour (after 7 days), and I thought I had to throw away my commercial yeast
Thank you.

The use of baker’s yeast in this formula is not a necessity. It is used here to insure a consistent rise in the product. If you choose not to use baker’s yeast, be sure to modify the fermentation and proofing times appropriately.

I have been using this formula for about a year now to make our everyday bread. It is a great bread. The only change I have made is to use whole wheat berries rather than cracked. I soak them separately in room temperature water for at least 24 hours. They are a bit crunch if I include them in the overnight soaker. After 24 hours they have started to sprout and provide a good texture to the bread.

[…] a few years ago, and it looked good. I decided, without much forethought, to have a go myself. The Bread cetera recipe was scaled to produce three loaves. I only wanted to make one but, rather than properly calculating […]

Hi
Thank you for the great recipe! I have done this recipe with a bob red mill 5 grain cereal as a soaker with great success. It’s easier to come bye then some of the ingredients individually. Thanks again!
Jodi

Hi Steve,
Thanks for sharing this recipe. I’m a novice baker and still trying to get the dough consistency right. When you talk about substituting grains or seeds — does that include nuts? I would like to add some walnuts. What do you think?

Adding boiling water to the soaker grains and allowing it to soak overnight, as the recipe states, will soften the soaker sufficiently. There is no need to boil the soaker for any extended period of time.

I am doing this now, I am at the autolyse part, and I wonder if I have to use the water from the soaker or only the grains?
I think it’s only grains, because that would make a 110% or so hydratation of the dough, but I still need a confirmation from you because I’m a newbie to bread and I don’t want to mess it up

After the water is added to the grains to make the soaker and the soaker is allowed to sit overnight, most if not all of the water should have been absorbed by the grains. The entire grains/water soaker should be added to the dough.